


Grace Notes

by SiriuslyEmily



Series: Absent Interludes [2]
Category: Kingdom Hearts (Video Games)
Genre: Gen, Keyblade Graveyard (Kingdom Hearts), Loneliness, Missing Scene, brief mentions of past injury/blood
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-06
Updated: 2020-08-06
Packaged: 2021-03-06 07:33:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,982
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25739614
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SiriuslyEmily/pseuds/SiriuslyEmily
Summary: “It’s getting pretty close to showtime.” Xigbar looked out at the wasteland again. “Lazy guys like you should stay far away, unless you plan on getting yourself into a tussle with a Guardian of Light.”“Ew. No thanks,” Demyx said, sitting down on a rock beside Xigbar. “As soon as the fighting starts, this is the last place I’ll be.”A bored Demyx chats with Xigbar a little while before the Keyblade War.
Relationships: Demyx & Xigbar (Kingdom Hearts)
Series: Absent Interludes [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2069040
Comments: 14
Kudos: 31





	Grace Notes

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this as a gift for Ari (@/xigithy) and Kait (@/uultima_) as part of a group surprise for their anniversary, since Demyx and Xigbar are their respective faves :) Enjoy!

_Grace note, n.: an extra note added as an embellishment and not essential to the harmony or melody._

The reverberating twangs of plucked sitar strings echoed out into the dusty air of the Badlands. Demyx sat cross-legged on a high boulder, strumming out a wandering melody. Ever since he’d agreed to give up his heart again and become a (benched) vessel for the old dude, he’d had a _lot_ of time on his hands to hang out, and that meant spending most of his time just watching the others and playing his sitar. At least, that’s what it usually meant; today he’d barely seen anyone at all, and he was starting to feel bored out of his skull.

He strummed frantically on his sitar for a moment, letting the notes jumble together, and then dropped his hand with a heavy sigh. “Man. Where _is_ everybody?” 

With a wave of his hand, Arpeggio vanished in a cloud of vapor, and he sighed again for emphasis. Free time was cool and all, but at least back in the old Organization there were usually other members around. He was idly considering summoning the energy to get up and go looking for one of the others--he was _pretty_ sure he remembered where they’d been sent--when movement below made him pause. He leaned forward, peering down, as a dark corridor swirled up from the shadow of another boulder. 

Xigbar stepped out of the darkness, his boots sending up small clouds of dust. The corridor dissipated as he looked around, first in the direction of the crossroads, and then towards the circle of pillars close by, currently empty. He didn’t seem to notice Demyx at all, and he didn’t look like he was in any kind of rush, either; he took a seat on a nearby rock and just looked out at the Badlands, though there didn’t seem to be anything all that interesting to watch.

Demyx wasn’t really sure he _got_ Xigbar. Okay, he wasn’t really sure he got _anyone_ these days, but at least back in the old Organization things had kinda made sense _._ Sure, Xemnas had been lying to them about not having hearts, and Demyx had never really believed him anyway, but everyone else had seemed to believe it, and Xigbar, for all his “I know something you don’t know” attitude, had done whatever the Organization had needed him to do. And like, maybe Demyx didn’t really have any _friends_ in the Organization, but Xigbar joked around with him sometimes, and didn’t complain about his music, and sometimes he grinned when Demyx called him Xiggy, so they probably weren’t _not_ friends.

But now, Xigbar was just being weird. He kept wandering off to other worlds, or giving orders to Luxord about that box thing he was so interested in, or standing in the Keyblade Graveyard staring out at what was, as far as Demyx could tell, a bunch of rocks and super old keyblades. He barely even hung out at The Castle That Never Was--not that Demyx really did either, considering half of it had been ripped apart and left to float in the void, including Demyx’s old room. 

Still...everyone else was out on a mission, and Demyx hadn’t talked to anyone all day besides Saix, who hadn’t even said hi when he showed up, only asked him where Xigbar had gone. Demyx had just shrugged, and Saix had frowned and left without another word. (Bored or not, Demyx wasn’t _super_ broken up about that.) He’d spent the rest of the day so far on his own, playing tunes for no one in particular. 

Demyx hummed to himself, thinking, then let himself sink into a pocket of darkness, sliding through shadows amongst the rocks quicker than any eye could pick up, until he was down on the cracked brownish ground. With less than a thought, he emerged once again, popping out of the shadows right next to Xigbar with a chirpy, “Hey dude!”

Xigbar didn’t quite jump, but he did raise his head a little too quickly, eye widening, and Demyx knew he’d managed to sneak up on him--not easy to do. Demyx waved at him with a grin. “‘Sup?”

“Sheesh, a little warning next time, okay?” Xigbar said, his expression quickly returning to its usual slight smirk. “Where’d you come from?”

“I was chillin’ on a rock up there,” Demyx said, pointing to where he’d been sitting. “Super bored. No one’s been around today.”

“It’s getting pretty close to showtime.” Xigbar looked out at the wasteland again. “Lazy guys like you should stay far away, unless you plan on getting yourself into a tussle with a Guardian of Light.”

“Ew. No thanks,” Demyx said, sitting down on a rock beside Xigbar. “As soon as the fighting starts, this is the _last_ place I’ll be.” 

Xigbar chuckled, but didn’t say anything else. He looked kind of preoccupied, but not in any hurry to go, and Demyx didn’t want to bother him too much and make him leave, so he kept quiet too. After a minute, to fill the silence, Demyx summoned his sitar again, and began to tune it. It didn’t really _need_ tuning, being a magical weapon and all, but it gave him something to do. Xigbar didn’t seem to mind, or at least he didn’t tell him to put it away, so Demyx tested his strings with a short melody, one he remembered working on in his room at the Castle months ago.

Demyx glanced to the side as he reached the end of the song, but Xigbar wasn’t even looking his way. A little disappointed, he finished the melody. As the last few notes drifted off into the empty air, Demyx suddenly piped up. “Hey, Xiggy?”

Xigbar looked over at him, frowning again, and Demyx wondered if maybe, even with all the noise he was making, Xigbar had forgotten he was there. “Yeah?”

“Why’d you come back?”

“Come back where?”

“Y’know, to the Organization.”

Xigbar didn’t answer for a moment. He looked almost surprised, his eyebrows raised slightly. “Why’d _you_ come back to the Organization?”

“Hey, no fair. I asked you first.”

“So what? I asked second.” He smiled slightly as Demyx frowned back at him. “Hey, come on. You tell me, and maybe I’ll tell you.”

“Whatever, man,” Demyx said, but after a moment’s consideration, he shrugged. “I dunno. When I got recompleted, I woke up and everything like, hurt? I was pretty wrecked, I think. I couldn’t even summon Arpeggio. And then Xemnas showed up and told me if I went with him he’d patch me up, and…” 

He plucked a couple of strings, trying to remember more, but his recollection was decidedly hazy. Mostly he just remembered pain. 

“I think he also mentioned a bunch of stuff about like, a grand purpose or something,” he said finally. “I wasn’t listening _super_ close. Didn’t really know what was up, y’know? One minute I’m fighting Sora, next minute I’m laying on the ground somewhere bleeding out.”

“Somewhere?”

“Looked kinda like an alley? There were some buildings, but I wasn’t really paying attention--had a _killer_ headache.There was a lot of blood, too.” He turned a peg, perhaps a bit too tightly, because his next strum was so off-tune that he flinched. “Woops.”

“Sounds intense.”

“It sucked, dude. But Xemnas said if I let them take my heart again I could just chill out. Like, no missions or anything! So I said okay and the old dude showed up and--” He pulled the neck of his sitar towards him, aiming one of the spikes right at his heart, and leaned his head to the side with his tongue lolling out in his best impression of a corpse. Xigbar chuckled quietly, and Demyx strummed the sitar again, satisfied. “Then I woke up here. And I’ve just been hanging out ever since.”

“The life of a backup vessel’s a tough one,” Xigbar said with faux-sympathy. “Consider yourself lucky. Vexen’s been spending all his time cooped up in that lab of his. I don’t think the guy even sleeps.”

“Whatever, he’s always like that.” Demyx had dropped in to visit Vexen exactly once since he became a vessel, intending to say hi and maybe alleviate some boredom, but all he’d gotten for his troubles was a scolding and a golden-eyed glare. “At least they need him around for something.”

“Oh?” Xigbar said, grinning. “You saying you _want_ to go on missions?”

“Nah, no way. But I don’t really get why I’m here. I mean, Xemnas was all, ‘ooh, you guys are part of an ancient keyblade legacy,’ but like, what does that even mean?”

Xigbar’s eyebrows raised slightly again, though his tone was still mild. “He said that, huh?”

“Yep. Marly looked really suspicious, and I think Larxene and Luxord were confused, but Xemnas just laughed and corridor’d out.” Demyx shrugged. “Whatever. If we could use keyblades then what did we even need Roxas for? He’s just saying stuff to keep us here, same as last time.” 

“He’s never been the most straight-forward guy.”

Demyx waited for him to say more, but Xigbar was looking out at the graveyard again, in the direction of the crossroads full of dead keys. Again, Demyx felt weird. They were right next to each other, and the silence hadn’t lasted long at all, but he felt nearly as alone then as he did when he had been sitting by himself. 

He plucked another string, letting the sound stretch on and on, until he silenced it with a finger. “Sooo, you gonna answer my question?”

“Huh? Oh.” Xigbar shrugged. “Didn’t really have much of a choice, same as you. Gotta do whatever the old man wants, after all.”

“What d’you mean?”

“C’mon, I’m pretty sure you’ve got a brain under all that hair. As long as you’ve known me, has my eye ever been any other color?” Xigbar pulled the lid of his eye down, the scar beneath it warping slightly, and leaned in. The harsh sunlight glinted in the gold of his single iris.

“Hey, gross. Cut it out.” Demyx pulled away, and Xigbar laughed. 

“I’ve been a vessel longer than any of you,” he said, dropping his hand. “That old coot says jump, I gotta say how high. That’s just how it is.”

That didn’t sound right, but Demyx couldn’t say why. Sure, they all had Xehanort in their hearts or whatever now, but did that really mean they _had_ to do whatever the old guy said? “Is that really what it’s like? For chosen vessels?”

“You don’t believe me?”

“I dunno. Larxene was saying she and Marluxia should stage another coup. Like, they’re _here_ , but they don’t seem happy.”

“Happy or not, the point is that they joined back up, and they’re out doing whatever Xehanort wants them to do. Maybe they don’t like it. Maybe they wanna do something else. But they’ll do it, because it’s what he wants.” Xigbar leaned back against the rock. “You and Vexen can do whatever, for the most part, ‘cause you’re just around to fill space, but not us.”

“Harsh.”

“Hey, it’s true. Why d’you think Saix isn’t barking orders at you all day? So long as you just stick around, the old man has you in case those replicas don’t work out. And as for Marluxia and Larxene, they can talk all they want, but it won’t change a thing. They’d have to try pretty damn hard to pull off something that goes against Xehanort’s will. Wouldn’t be easy to keep it from him, either.”

“Huh.” Demyx thought for a second. “Wait. So he can like, read our minds? That’s messed up!”

“Ha!” Xigbar shook his head, grinning. “Nah, but he’s good at seeing into people’s hearts. He’ll figure out what you want and tell you how he can help you get it. I mean, it worked on you--you were hurting pretty bad, and then you get an offer to just chill out, exactly what you’ve always wanted. Seems to me you got sweet-talked.”

Demyx strummed his sitar again, humming, and then he shrugged. “I guess. Better than dying.” He wasn’t sure what to think of Xigbar’s explanation--he himself had never been all that good at figuring out what people wanted--but he guessed it made more sense than Xehanort being a mind-reader, though weirder things had happened. “So, what did he offer you?”

“Me?” 

“Yeah, dude. What did you want?”

Xigbar looked at him for a long moment, longer than Demyx was comfortable with. Maybe Xehanort couldn’t read minds, but when Xigbar stared at him like that, it almost felt like maybe _he_ could. Then Xigbar smirked, the corner of his eye crinkling. 

“Would you believe me if I told you it was his keyblade?”

“What? Seriously?” Demyx was so shocked he almost lost his grip on Arpeggio; he quickly steadied it, still staring at Xigbar. “Why would you want that? You’ve got your guns. Can you even use one?”

“Why not? You’re the one that’s supposed to be part of some ancient keyblade legacy.” Xigbar leaned forward, elbows on his knees, propping his chin up on one hand. He looked casual as always, but there was something about how he was watching Demyx that seemed more intense than his ever-casual tone suggested. “You saying you wouldn’t use one if you got the chance to?”

Demyx looked down at his sitar uncertainly, frowning. He tried to imagine himself holding a keyblade instead, ready to take down some Heartless or go after a bunch of bad guys, but no matter how much he tried, it just didn’t feel right. Something about the mental image even made him feel kind of uneasy, though he wasn’t sure why.

“Nah,” he said, with a shake of his head. “I got Arpeggio--can’t play tunes on a keyblade. I mean, sure, they’ve got all those fancy powers, but mostly you just wack things with ‘em, and like, that sounds like a lot of work. I’m good.” 

Xigbar laughed, long and loud, at his answer, so long that Demyx pulled a face. Xigbar just shook his head, still grinning, and slapped a hand down on his shoulder. “You’re something else, kid.”

“Whatever, dude, it’s not that deep,” Demyx said, playing another chord. He was annoyed for a moment, but it dissipated quickly; Larxene laughed at him all the time, so he was used to shrugging it off. “And it’s not like he’s gonna give it to you anyways. He needs it for his plan, right? And if _that_ works us vessels are probably screwed, benched or not, so like, if anyone got sweet-talked? It was definitely you.”

“Heh. We’ll see.” 

Demyx waited, but Xigbar fell silent again. This was kind of weird too, how _quiet_ Xigbar was these days. Usually their conversations went back and forth pretty easily, but more often than not they petered out now. Demyx started playing his half-written melody again, but after a few bars he stopped, letting it go unfinished. He looked back to Xigbar, about to ask just what he thought about the old guy’s plan to restart the whole World anyway (like, was it gonna hurt, or…?) but a familiar whoosh of displaced air made them both turn. 

A Dusk materialized out of nothing, wiggling around as it landed in front of them, and focused its eyeless gaze on Xigbar. After a moment Xigbar sighed, but nodded at the Dusk, who vanished. 

“Well, time to get back to work,” Xigbar said. 

Demyx frowned. Weird or not, talking to Xigbar was more fun than tuning his sitar for the dozenth time. “Can’t you just play hooky?”

“I dunno,” Xigbar drawled as he got to his feet, raising his arms into the air in a stretch. “I got a bunch of wise-guys asking me all these questions whenever I do. Kinda tired of it. And like I said, I gotta do what the old man tells me.” He flipped Demyx a lazy salute, then opened a dark corridor, shadow swirling up from the ground. “Try not to get too bored without me.”

He disappeared into the shadows, and then Demyx was alone again. He looked at the spot Xigbar had just been occupying, and then he started picking out the old tune one last time, adding a few embellishments—a flourish here, a grace note there. He finished the melody, and he knew it sounded better than it ever had, but without anyone else around to hear it, he just felt strangely hollow. 

Another whoosh of air made him raise his head. The Dusk—or _a_ Dusk, at least; he had never been able to tell them apart—was standing in front of him again, undulating slowly. 

“Xigbar already left, man,” Demyx said, but half a second later, a voice made impossibly of void spoke into his mind.

_Lord Vexen requests your assistance, my Liege._

Demyx scratched his head—Dusk messages always made his brain feel itchy—and frowned. “Vexen? Seriously?” 

The Dusk didn’t answer, but Demyx knew they hadn’t gotten it wrong. He also knew Vexen had never requested his assistance in the entire time they had known each other, and he’d been in the Organization a _while._ For a moment, he thought about heading off somewhere to hide, but then he shrugged and waved his hand, Arpeggio dissolving into mist once more. 

“Lead the way, little dude.”

The Dusk gave an unsteady nod, and a corridor opened behind it. It jumped into it, disappearing, and Demyx followed. Whatever Vexen wanted from him, it had to be less boring than sitting around on a rock for another few hours. And besides, he thought to himself as he stepped into the darkness, if he helped out with whatever it was, maybe he could get Vexen to listen to his song.


End file.
